About Me

I was a reporter and columnist for 40 years for a chain of newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. I'm a military veteran having served in the United States Army Combat Engineers (Cpl. E-4) and a Korean War veteran with an Honorable Discharge from the Armed Forces of the United States of America

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The mainstream media in the United States has been praising President Bush for arranging one of the 18 benchmarks originally outlined for the reconcilliation of Iraq. However, the media is not reporting there is a difference of opinion with one of the leading Iraqi chiefs who opposes the U.S. presence in Iraq.Sahwa congress chief says opposes U.S. presence in Iraq

Riyadh, Jan 13, (VOI) – The Iraq Sahwa (Awakening) Congress chief said the Sahwa is against the U.S. presence in Iraq, calling on U.S. forces to withdraw and hand the country over to its people because "they are capable of maintaining security."

"The Sahwa council has evidence that Iran was involved in criminal acts inside Iraq," Sheikh Kamal Hammad al-Muajal Abu Risha in an interview with the Saudi edition of al-Hayat newspaper, published on Sunday, not mentioning any details about these "acts.""The deceased Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha had called on U.S. President George W. Bush, during a meeting with him at the province of al-Anbar, to pull out U.S. troops and hand Iraq over to the Iraqis but the U.S. president replied that it was impossible to do so before making sure security is maintained in the country," He said.After the assassination of his father and six of his brothers by al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq in 2004, Sheikh Abdul-Sattar founded the Anbar Sahwa Council and chaired the Iraq Sahwa Congress, an alliance encompassing 42 clans that pledged to fight al-Qaeda members.The Sahwa tribal fighters managed to flush out armed groups from a number of areas once considered strongholds of gunmen for years.Abdul-Sattar, however, was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) that targeted his house in al-Ramadi, capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar.The attack also left his bodyguard and two other escorts killed and his nephew seriously wounded."The resistance of occupation by all means is a legitimate affair but with current conditions in Iraq we are no longer able to tell the difference between terrorism and resistance. That's why we support the opinion calling for stopping all forms of resistance until security is consolidated in the country. Only then we would demand the departure of occupation forces," said Kamal Abu Risha in his interview.